The last bit of advice I have for this week is learn to laugh about your own writing mistakes.
I forgot how valuable a gift this is until I was sitting at writer's group last night. Since moving to AR I've found the best writing group ever. We have so much fun together while becoming better writers.
Last night we laughed so hard we couldn't breathe. Why? One writer read some of her first draft stuff for us. You see, that's what we do. We bring 6-10 pages of our WIPs to read out loud to the group and then everyone weighs in with their thoughts. We all write different genres and we are all in different places in the process. It makes for a great time.
So, this lovely writer calls herself a "beginner" but she writes with a lot of humor. Add phrases like "trying to calm my bodies annoying reactions" along with some other phrases that hit all of us as funny at 9 PM.
Ex: "resigned to the new boy debriefing"--which was NOT what it sounds like. OMGosh we were crying we laughed so hard.
We all write funny things when we are getting our stories out of our heads and onto the page. At that point you're not supposed to be self editing anyway. However, sometimes we miss things in the subsequent revisions. Instead of getting embarrassed and upset by it, just laugh it off.
Trust me, its a lot more fun that way.
2 comments:
True. But I fear I'd be too embarrassed.
My heart still races when I read, but the more I do it the easier its getting. We really do need to learn how not to take everything so seriously. The truth is that reading a few mistakes is not the end of the world. I CAN go back and fix it. That's the sole purpose of critiquing. Give it a try and you might find you like it.
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